Mandate 2014 and Modi’s Victory

After months of mudslinging and a no-holds-barred campaign, India voted and it voted more decisively than it had in 30 years. No pulling strings and unfair bargaining from the allies anymore. While I am, I see that many are not very happy about the mandate, specially the anti-Modi camp. I concede that being a number 8 person, Modi invokes only extreme emotions in the people who like or dislike him. But how sensible is it if the haters continue to be apprehensive of him even after he sits on the throne of the world’s largest democracy? Does he not deserve a chance to deliver on the dreams he has sold to more than 17 crore people of this country? Even if a person is cynical about him, should he not put aside the stories of the past for a while and examine his present with a clear head? Now that he has 5 years, should you not judge him by what he does hereafter?

No Muslim MP in the 282 seats the BJP has won.

Okay, Indian politics has a ridiculous definition to secularism. Secularism actually is the philosophy of disregard to religion in a government’s policies. Having said that, if you are secular, why do you need your MP to be of your religion? Why should there be a consideration of religion at all in politics? UP had more than 15 Muslim MPs previously, and what did the Muslims of UP get? The episodes like Muzaffernagar happened. Didn’t they? Mulayam Singh even announced Muslim reservations if he was voted to power. Is that secularism? All of India’s poor, regardless of his religion and caste, need food, clothing and education. All of India’s youth, regardless of religion and caste, need employment and opportunities. Religion is only something politicians use to play with your emotions, that’s all. It’s time we realized that. Addressing the rally in Patna, Modi said, “A Muslim has to decide if he wants to fight against a Hindu or against Poverty. A Hindu has to decide if he wants to fight against a Muslim or against Poverty.” As he was speaking, bombs were going off in the crowd that eventually took 5 innocent lives. What did the bombers get?

Muslim appeasement only benefited BJP!

Everybody except the BJP and their allies were behind a mascot called secularism. Congress went to Muslim religious leaders asking not to divide “secular votes” (Waah! only Muslims are secular. Nice ‘secular’ thought.) While AAP’s Shazia Ilmi asked Muslims to be communal this time, SP’s Azam Khan said Kargil was won by Muslim soldiers. None of the non-NDA parties talked about issues like corruption, price rise etc, but they went on and on preaching secularism which was never going to give poor the food, and the youth employment. It was natural for the people to feel that only BJP (and to some extent AAP) was talking about development, employment and the issues that were really cared about by the voters. Seriously, if I were to offer a poor youth a job and secularism, which one would he choose? Let’s face it. As everybody jumped for Muslim votes in the name of secularism, BJP and Modi seemed to be the only option to the majority community and they started polarizing towards BJP. As there were multiple takers for minority votes, even though Muslims were polarized against BJP, their votes were split among so called secular parties. Having said that, there should be no surprise to accept that UP elected 73 NDA candidates out of 80 even after having most of India’s Muslim population. Moral of the story? As long as you vote in the name of religion and caste, politicians will take advantage of you. This applies to all parties including BJP. Am I saying that this election was all about religion and nothing else? Of course not. I was only talking about those 30% of India’s population who just cannot afford to buy Modi’s development story as they are too busy working hard for their three time meals.

Days Ahead

Now that Modi indeed has become the prime minister of India with such a huge majority, it is only fair to give him the chance to prove himself. If he fails to do so, I’ll join you in the polling booths 5 years later and let’s vote him out. Afterall, that’s what democracy is all about!